Stories of an ExBrainwashed Clone
by SociallyInept
Summary: All the oneshot stories for my fanfic100 claim on X23, in one sweet location.
1. A Beginning

I'm going to try to put these in order as I go according to the prompts, but I may forget. This starts it all, X23's first few days at the mansion, before she became Laura.

* * *

At first, she'd hidden in the corners of Logan's room, refusing to come out for anyone or anything. There was too much too soon. Too many smells, too many strange tastes, too many people watching her in curiosity, wondering who or what she was, or if they recalled her last visit, when she was going to attack again. She didn't attack.

She hid.

Logan was dubious about it the first night, but he humored her. She slept in a corner on the floor, unused to the softness of a bed or even the chair. She refused the pillow Logan had offered until he threw it at her in frustration, only then curling up around it and the blanket he'd thrown afterwards, after discovering the effectiveness of the method.

The next morning she refused to speak to anyone and would only enter the kitchen after most of the mansion's students had left for school, and eventually gave up trying to find something to eat that she recognized and went back to hiding in Logan's room until he came and dragged her back out. It wasn't hard, she was very light and even threatening to gut him didn't work because he knew she wouldn't do it.

It wasn't until that afternoon that the Professor and Logan managed to convince her to shower. She fought it all the way, but once she was in they had to fight to get her out. The clothes they had left for her were strange. The top was a large cotton thing that came down to her knees, and the pants were a material she'd seen often on people of all ages and gender but never actually tried herself. Once she got it on though, she realized she'd found another thing she'd missed out on that she really would have enjoyed. The material, although not black and leathery, was tough and blue.

The comb was also nice.

But there was one problem still that the Professor and Logan were at odds about.

"X23," the Professor said when she'd answered his polite summon to his office, "is not a name. It is a title, or the name of a possession. Not a suitable name for a teenage girl. Have you thought of a name you might like to have?"

She stood there, silently, watching as Logan's expression grew dark.

"Why would she? The kid's afraid of almost everything here. She's barely been out of my room. Why would she be worried about naming herself?"

The Professor appeared to be listening intently to Logan before turning to her. "What are your thoughts on the matter?"

She looked at the floor, thinking. Even Logan had a name, and he was the first weapon. So he had a life before that. He didn't remember it. He picked his own name and it suits him.

"X23…is not a name." she decided. "But I don't know who to be."


	2. Endings

Title: How Will It End?

Fandom: X-Men: Evolution  
Characters: X23

Prompt: #3, Ends  
Word Count: 403  
Rating: PG- talk of death  
Summary: How will the X-Men end?

How is it supposed to end? On the movies and television shows it all ends well- the hero gets the girl, or the heroine gets the guy. The bad guy gets punished and defeated; the world is saved once again. But that's all made up. This is reality. How will the X-Men end? How will each person living here in the mansion end?

These are the thoughts that occur to Laura after the X-Men return from a failed mission, or someone gets injured in training. They all emerge with their heads hung, quietly contemplative. A gloom hangs over them until their next success. And when this occurs, it's impolite to express joy or talk about cool fun things. Everyone must be gloomy and downtrodden as well. In times like these, Laura thinks about things she'd rather not.

She knows that she's going to outlive everyone in the mansion except for Logan. That's okay. By default that also meant she was going to outlive anyone who ever tried to hurt her. But what would happen if one day the X-Men returned with one less than they left with?

The odds of them all getting old were slim, and Laura didn't think they realized that yet. Who would die first? Jean, finally losing complete control of her growing powers? Scott, being noble and sacrificing himself for others? Kitty, not phasing in time? Or one of the adults- Dr. McCoy, being mistaken for Bigfoot again by someone trigger happy? Or even the Professor himself, and his belief that there's good in everyone?

It was hard to tell. She had heard about Evan, and how when he left the team Ororo was depressed for weeks. If someone died, what would happen next?

Laura hated having a family just as much as she loved it. On one hand, there was always someone around- usually several people- all clamoring for attention from each other. On the other hand, someday there would be no one again, and she would be alone, a word she'd learned only after she wasn't. She didn't want to be alone again, because then there would only be herself. And after living like this, being accepted completely despite who and what she was- had been- that would be excruciating.


	3. Rain

#66 from the fanfic100 prompt, rain. Chronologically this is probably right after the first chapter, but it's not in order so...don't worry about it.

All belongs to Marvel except New York rain. That belongs to the government.

* * *

The rain was falling outside, and X23 was standing in it. She wasn't moving, just standing with her head slightly upturned and her eyes closed. She knew some of the children from the mansion were watching, but they weren't on her mind. People watched her all the time; she didn't pay attention to it anymore.

Someone said something from the patio. Ah, dinner. That's nice.

The inquisitive eyes from the windows were gone, replacing her image with that of the dinner Ms. Munroe had cooked up. She was alone.

There wasn't really a point to her being out here, soaking her cotton shirt and sweatpants through with the warm rain, but then this particular rainfall didn't seem to have a point either. There'd just been a series of storms pass through a few days ago, so more rain was a hindrance. But it came anyway. X23 could identify with that, and so she stood in the rain and didn't feel alone.


	4. She

This is old. Which, for me, means it's from more than four months ago. It's been adopted for prompt #85: She.

* * *

The first thing I noticed about her was her haunting beauty. She was beautiful, though not in a conventional sense.  
It's her beauty that shows how hopeless she is. She will never be normal, she's seen so much pain and horror.

Death is her art.

Though not without reason.

They say she's cold-blooded, but I've never seen her kill a child. Maybe because she was one herself when her life was destroyed. The gangly child had developed into a curvy chestnut-haired beauty with such haunting, stormy eyes.

Those eyes...they scream of witnessing unspeakables, of making mistakes, of hopelessness, of death. But mostly they speak of revenge. Her job is to end things. Events, people pain. She has no friends, no family.

She is alone.

She doesn't hate the world, she hates what's in it. She doesn't hate daylight, she just lives at night. She doesn't hate life, she wants to die.

But she can't. It would leave her bared.

Her beauty is in her sorrow.


	5. Notes

It continues... This is written to be a note being passed back and forth. This is the style I always wrote in back when I started. I wrote like scripts and as if it was notes, and then graduated to vignette-type things, and then short stories, and here I am now procrastinating (but still working on) full-length stories. So fun.

L is Laura (X23), and J is Jamie Madrox.

* * *

Notes

L- This isn't math.

J- What isn't?

L- This. T and F are letters. This is logic.

J- Yeah, so?

L- So why is it taught in math?

J- It doesn't fit in any other category, I guess.

L- I guess so.

…

J- What are you doing?

J- Studying, doing my math, reading a comic book, and making popcorn

L- Multitask much?

J- I am Multiple Man.

L- No, you're just Multiple.

J- Man.

L- Multiple. You're not old enough to be a Man. You're not even a teenager.

J- Multiple Teenager sounds stupid.

L- So does Multiple Man on a twelve-year-old.

J- Oh, and how much older than me are you?

L- Two years. I'm 14.

J- That's nothing.

L- Yes it is.

J- You're over exaggerating.

L- You're a runt.

J- Shorty.

L- Dork.

J- Psycho.

L- Momma's boy.

J- My mom's dead.

L- That's nice.

J- Insensitive.

L- Baby.

J- Am not!

L- Whatever.

…

L- Jamie?

…

L- Multiple?

…

L- You're mad.

J- Wonder why.

L- I said something?

J- You did.

L- Something tactless?

J- A little. You don't know?

L- No. What was it, exactly?

J- I circled it.

L- 'That's nice'?

J- Yeah.

L- How is that tactless?

J- Usually when someone says their parents are dead you're supposed to say you're sorry.

L- Why? It's not my fault. I think. What were their social security numbers?

J- It couldn't have been you unless you were driving a diesel truck.

L- Oh, okay. Um, sorry, then. I guess.

J- It's okay.

…

L- This still isn't math.

J- Whatever.


	6. Hall Wetter

And so it begins. This begins my fanfic100 claim on X-Men: Evolution, X23. If anyone else is interested, it's based off of livejournal, which is the other location I'm posting all of these. Everything belongs to Marvel and maybe to WB still.

* * *

Simple Revenge

"You there!" I hid in a shadow and called out just loud enough for the words to be heard and my meaning to be clear, but soft enough that only the person I was speaking to heard it.

"Yeah?" It was Bobby, half-asleep, weaving slightly down the hall. Just the other day he had cut me off and dove into the chair I wanted. He seems to have an ego problem. I smiled in the darkness. Let's…play.

"What was that?" I barked out, sounding like Nick Fury. How annoying. But Bobby apparently didn't feel the same way. He'd frozen midstep, tensely looking around in the darkness of the hall.

"Yes…ma'am?"

"What are you doing up at this hour?" It was getting hard to keep my voice firm, I wanted to laugh so badly. Me, laughing. Not a year out of a lab and I'm already giggling. I blame Kitty.

I stepped out from the shadows and into his line of sight. Something smelled funny.

"Um…originally I had to pee." He said in a normal voice, recognizing me. I prowled often. There weren't shifts here, guarding the mansion against attack. Everyone went to sleep around the same time, so night was a prime time to attack the mansion, should an enemy feel so inclined. Logan repeatedly told me that the mansion had an unparalleled security system, but if that was the case, why was it so easy to blow up?

Plus Jean's PMSing again, and her just audible whimpers from cramps were getting on my nerves.

"Originally?" I asked.

"Yeah. Not anymore though." He said, irritated and amused and embarrassed at the same time.

I suddenly recognized the smell, and we stood in silence for a few moments, just looking at each other.

"That's gross," I stated finally.

"You started it," he said.

"Did not."

There was another awkward pause.

"…Clean that up," I told him, and scurried back to the room Jean and I share before I could get caught and blamed for making a fifteen year old boy wet himself. Behind me, as I fled, I heard Bobby.

"Well, this sucks."


	7. An Industrious Spider's Web

Title: An Industrious Spider's Web  
Fandom: X-Men: Evolution  
Characters: X23, the residents of the X-Mansion  
Prompt: # , Insides  
Word Count: 1027  
Rating: G  
Summary: In order to fit in, you must have a personality. In order to have a personality you must have other people to define yourself by.  
Author's Notes: There are several references to my other X23 fanfics in here. It's all part of the 100 Fanfic Challenge stories I have online, so if something intrigues you go read those.

If everyone's pretty much alike on the inside, how can there be such diversity in their character? And how does it all fit together, all those personalities, into a complicated myriad of relationships and interactions that would put an industrious spider's web to shame?

Jean and Scott like each other, but Jean also is crushing on Warren. Rogue is also sweet on Warren but has to put up with Remy, who is obsessed with her. Kitty, Rogue's roommate, like Lance most of the time but has a soft spot for Piotr, who prefers solitude. Ray and Roberto are soul twins and Sam gets ignored by them a lot and hangs out with Jubilee and Rahne, who aren't interested in him but are in Ray and Roberto. Amara doesn't really get along with anyone the way she does with Tabby and it's mutual, which has a few people asking questions.

But where does Laura, formerly X23, fit in?

She's the unintentional clone of Logan. That's all. In order to fit into a myriad of personalities, you must have a personality of your own. Trying to develop a personality isn't easy. There aren't any self-help books on it. The only real sure-fire way to become Somebody is to exist for awhile, but patience isn't really one of Laura's strong points. She wants to fit in the puzzle and do it NOW.

Jean tries to help by buying her 'clothes with character'. Rogue lends her cds. Kitty tries to gossip with her.

But whether she wants it to or not, it doesn't work. Jean's clothes stay on the floor in the closet where Laura drops the. Rogue's cds sit silently on the dresser until Jean gives them back, both shrugging as if to say 'what can you do?' Kitty gets ignored or told to go away.

But what's this? Down the boys' hall most of the way is a half-open door with several boys in it, lounging around and yelling at two boys in the center of the room who have controllers in their hands. In a corner of the room, on a bed, sits Laura. She does not speak on her own, but will take a controller when it is tossed to her and silently beat the snot out of anyone on any fighting or combat game. They question her about it- has she really never played this game before? How did she beat him so easily? Was somebody letting her win?

Laura will just study them silently until someone's move on a game distracts them, and continue to watch until they let her play again. Slowly, as the gaming goes on, she'll move out of her corner and closer to the center of the room, playing more often and even talking some. Once she started a conversation with Scott, and he was in a good enough mood to try to keep it going until the topic was exhausted.

Over the weeks it felt more natural to join the boys on their gaming sprees, to run to the store with somebody to get more popcorn and potato chips (without incident most of the time), to even ask if they could play a certain game if she was wanting to. At first the boys had tolerated her out of pity and terror, but after a few months of getting the hang of her moods they would actively go looking for her if they were thinking about watching a movie or playing a game. Not long after that, they started letting her play sports with them (fighting over whose team she would be on, since if they were on the team playing against hers the odds on them getting injured were extremely high).

It baffled the girls. How could an angry, intimidating, solitary girl have befriended the guys so easily within months, while they were still trying to get to know them after a year? Laura wasn't a social girl-she still preferred having at least a few hours a day to herself, to work on the roses she'd adopted or muse over things that had occurred- but it wasn't as difficult as it was at first anymore to interact with people, to have conversations and usually know what they were about, to almost fit in.

There would always be that gap, thanks to her loveless childhood and assassin training. It was a reminder to everyone once they started letting her train with them, how dangerous she still really was. But it was also a reminder that even though that was true of X23, Laura was slowly becoming someone else in addition. X23 was still there inside and always would be. But the outside was no longer so angry or hateful. Laura still got in trouble for violence and losing her temper a lot more than a well-balanced child should, but not as much as before.

Laura became a girl who could beat any boy at any combat game, who could beat Sam in a dirtbike race, who made Bobby wet himself one night, who was there when Jean turned Jamie into a little girl for being so annoying, who led a rescue mission that led to everyone involved being extremely grounded for a long time, who never smiled but could appreciate a joke, who was completely honest but had nothing to hide. She was Jean's roommate (temporarily, even after several months), Logan's kind-of sister, Remy's unofficial little sister.

On the inside, in the middle of her being, Laura was still X23. But surrounding that in the void that used to be filled with hate and violence was something new, something different, a new strand in the spider web.


	8. Strangers Testing Strangers

Title: Strangers Testing Strangers  
Fandom: X-Men: Evolution  
Characters: X23, Nightcrawler  
Prompt: #25 Strangers  
Word Count: 941  
Rating: G  
Summary: Kurt tries to explain to Laura how to tell how people learn about each other.

"Can we go now?" Laura muttered halfheartedly, trying to convey with as few words as possible her displeasure with her current location.

"No, we need to wait for Jean and Storm," Kurt replied just as blandly, eyeballing how much of his milkshake was left in the cup. Even through the image inducer every part of his face expressed extreme boredom. They had elected to escape the mall because of the crowds and noise, but since Jean and Ororo hadn't answered the cell phone with them when Kurt tried to call, they were relegated to waiting in the parking lot they were parked in until the women emerged.

Laura shifted on the edge of the sidewalk and continued her scan of their surroundings. Kurt continued slurping slowly, every so often checking his watch.

"They said ten minutes more, right?" He asked after several minutes pause. Laura nodded curtly, frowning as a giggly girl draped herself over a boy as they left a car. This seemed to happen a lot with girls around her age in the outside world, Laura noted.

"Ugh, get a room," Kurt muttered when he saw the couple Laura was looking at. She glanced at him.

"Don't all girls do that?" she asked.

"Not at all. Well- some don't. The ones who are not into relying on others to make them feel like they're worth something."

"Rogue?" Laura asked. Rogue never touched anyone at all if she could help it, let along hung off them.

"No, Rogue's…Rogue. She has different issues. I'm talking about girls like…like that one over there." He pointed down the sidewalk towards a smartly-dressed woman walking slightly in front of a man in jeans. The only sign they even knew each other was their interlinked hands. "She knows she's worth something, and he's almost an accessory. She'd be fine without him."

"How do you know this? What if he's just a friend or a member of her family?" Laura was confused. She knew this touched on the vast emptiness that composed what Jean called her 'people-smarts', knowledge that only living as a person in a crowd and going to overcrowded schools can instill, but was compelled by the boredom of waiting outside a mall for two shopping women to try and figure out.

"No, he's not family. Look at them and the other two you noticed- both sets are holding hands and being close in their own ways. That girl's a little more outgoing about it," he nodded towards the giggly teen, who was sucking her boyfriend's face like a vacuum, "but they're both definitely out together."

"How long have they been 'going out' then, since you can tell these things so well?" Laura asked, shifting positions again on the curb so she could watch the two young people suck face more comfortably. Kurt didn't even look up.

"The young ones you're staring at probably haven't been together very long. They're much too in to that to really know each other yet. The other woman and her man…I think they know each other fairly well by now. They're very relaxed together, see?"

"Probably not," Laura admitted firmly, studying the couples astutely.

"Yes, probably not," Kurt agreed, and slurped his milkshake, looking away into the parking lot absently. The girl and her boyfriend stopped sucking face and went into the mall, and the woman and her man were long out of sight after a few minutes had passed. Several other people came and went, alone, with a partner, or in groups, but they grew hard to tell apart after awhile.

"They're just strangers until they meet." Laura said abruptly. Kurt looked at her with an unreadable expression, waiting for an explanation. "They don't always know each other. Holding hands and going to the mall is how they learn about each other?"

Kurt remained silent, watching the concrete in front of him but listening avidly. Laura seemed to be having a revelation.

"But how do they decide whether or not they like each other by going to a mall together? I don't understand. Save me the frustration and just tell me."

"This one time I will, but the rest you have to figure out on your own. It's like a test that each person puts on the other. Who is going to pay for the food? Who drives to the mall and back? Does one person seem preoccupied more with the items in the stores than the person they're with? How much do they buy? Is it all for themselves or are they spending their money on someone else? Things like that."

Laura was quiet for a minute. "Jean paid for your milkshake," she said.

"Technically the professor did. It's his money. Jean just spent it. And you had a milkshake too, you just finished it very quickly."

Another moment of silence passed before Laura spoke up again.

"So is our relationship with Professor Xavier or Jean improved because of our milkshakes?"

Kurt hesitated for a second, trying to find a way to change the argument.

"Because," Laura continued, "I personally still feel a sort of tolerable neutrality toward Professor Xavier and mild irritation with Jean. They failed their test."

Kurt laughed and tried to turn it into choking so Laura wouldn't get offended. "I think you blew my argument away, congratulations."

Laura shrugged and went back to studying the people walking by. It always seemed to come down to strangers testing strangers, regardless of motivation or method. It didn't really surprise her anymore.

But the milkshake had been good.


	9. Broken

Title: Broken

Fandom: X-Men: Evolution  
Characters: X23, Bobby, Sam, Amara, Logan  
Prompt: #71, Broken  
Word Count: 1717  
Rating: G  
Summary: Amara's most cherished stuffed animal gets broken and abandoned, and Laura saves it.

"Hey, give that back! You're going to break it!" Amara yelled, chasing Bobby and Sam down the girls' hall. They ignored her, laughing like maniacs and running as fast as they could.

"Give me Mr. Cuddles! My father gave him to me when I was a baby!" She screamed again, launching a ball of flame at the boys. They dodged it and slid down the banister of the front staircase, gaining some distance from the irate girl. Another one of Amara's flame balls flew past them, but the third knocked Bobby down. He tossed the stuffed animal to Sam, who fumbled it. At the same time he finally got a good grip on its head, Amara managed to catch up and grab one of its legs. They played a short but vicious game of tug of war that ended, of course, with the bear's head ripping off and the seam of the leg splitting, making the white downy fluff pop out in a horrible pantomime of death.

Sam and Bobby froze in the way of all kids whose teasing quickly turns from fun to disastrous. Amara stood in the position she'd been pulling in, staring at the beheaded teddy bear she was holding in shocked silence. Slowly, time sped back up and the boys bolted, dropping the bear's head on their way. Amara straightened up, never taking her eyes off the broken bear. She bent down slowly and scooped as much of the fluff and head as she could, and sighed in irritation, glancing around to see if anyone had witnessed the horrible crime to her oldest stuffed animal. Only Laura, but she wasn't going to drag her into this. Laura'd probably rip Amara's own head off with the same blank calculating expression she always had on her face. She was sort of creepy like that.

As Amara walked slowly towards the kitchen, she studied the remains of the bear, seeing that it was beyond simple repairs. The head hadn't ripped along the seams, and although Amara knew that technically the whole thing was fixable she didn't have the skills and would be embarrassed to have to ask Ms. Monroe or another older girl to fix it. Perhaps it would be better just to move on. She wasn't a baby anymore anyway. She was nearly halfway through her teenager hood. It had been years since she'd slept with this particular stuffed animal. Mostly Mr. Cuddles was just a sort of tribute to her father, who was thousands of miles away on his small island.

So with thoughts like these on her mind, it was easy for her to calmly drop the dead teddy into the trashcan and go back to what she was doing before.

As soon as she was gone, Laura appeared silently in the kitchen doorway. There was no one else in the kitchen to witness this, which she was relieved about as she stuck her arms into the trash and dug out the broken bear. She'd learned how to tear things apart; it couldn't be so hard to put things back together. She just had to do it in reverse, right?

Plus this beat the hell out of asking someone to buy her a stuffed animal. Ever since she'd first hugged it, when she was misguidedly hunting Logan, back before anyone knew her or what she was, Laura had wanted this bear, and now here it was, practically a gift! So it was in a few pieces. Laura had been in a few pieces a few times and sympathized. She put most of the fluff in her pockets and stuck the bear's body and head under her shirt, not wanting anyone to see, and ran to a secret place she knew where no one else went.

The back of Logan's closet wasn't the comfiest of places, it was about three feet too small for that, but with the addition of a few pillows and blankets and old forgotten clothes as padding it was just right for curling up in for awhile. Normally she went in there to hide from Jean, whose room she technically slept in, but none of the other students were allowed in Logan's room either (or they were afraid to, it's hard to tell the difference around him). He grumbled about it sometimes but that was all, understanding her need to get away without actually leaving.

She hastily stacked most of the pillows and blankets to one side of the cubby hole, revealing the dusty hardwood beneath. Gingerly, she laid out the head, the bear's body, and the fluff from her pockets out in a row, and studied them. Didn't most of her clothes, when ripped in play or fight (sometimes there was a difference), come back fixed? Who did that, Jean or Ororo? Laura thought for a minute. Jean usually did her laundry for her since she'd banned her from using the washer and dryer after the soap incident, but that was really all….

The closet door came open and Logan leaned in. "What are you doing this time, kid?"

She jerked and looked up at him with a guilty expression. "Nothing important. Go away."

'It's my room, my rules," Logan smirked, then stepped into the closet. "Isn't that Amara's? What did you do?"

Laura glanced down at the bear parts. "I didn't break it, Sam and Bobby did. Amara threw it away. I'm going to fix it."

Logan quickly turned his laugh into a cough. "You, fix something? I mean, sure. Okay. How?"

Laura looked back at him slightly perplexed. "I'm not sure. Who fixes stuff around here?"

"Ororo, for the kind of fixing you're after. Should I go get her?"

"No!" Laura said loudly, then dropped her voice to a whisper. "She'd make me give the bear back to Amara. She threw it away. It's mine now. I'm not returning it."

"Right," Logan said doubtfully, studying the bear as well. "If I get Ororo's sewing kit for you will you get out of my closet and go somewhere else?"

Laura agreed, and after removing a pillowcase from its pillow, she dumped the bear parts into it. Logan returned soon with the kit.

"She has four of these, apparently, but I think she'd notice one gone. Be quick about it. Now go away." Logan led her out of his room, and then shut the door behind her. Laura glanced around, grateful that since the weather was nice for the first time all week everyone was outside, and headed to another of her secret hiding places. In this case, one of the smaller attics of the institute only reachable by a ladder in the garage.

She muttered to herself as she laid everything out across a beam and sat in the insulation. She tried to remember how Ororo had done it one time when Laura had watched her mend a shirt. First, the needle and thread. Right. Laura grabbed some brown thread and grappled with it for awhile, and then got it through the needle to about how Ororo had it. She pushed some of the stuffing back into the bear and lined up the head on the body carefully, then stuck the needle in it.

After awhile she got it knotted so the thread wouldn't keep coming out and began accurate yet amateur stitching, eventually figuring that three rows of slightly large lines were enough to do the job. She tied the thread off and fixed the leg awkwardly, grateful it wasn't moving around like the head had been. When done, she held up the bear and studied it. It didn't look as well as it had before- the years hadn't been kind to it, but neither had being ripped apart, thrown in the trash, dug out, and reassembled in a dusty attic by a beginner with a stolen needle. Despite that, it still resembled a bear, which was the important part. Laura smiled triumphantly and gave it a test hug.

She pulled the bear away rapidly and yanked the needle out of it, then gave it a second test hug, nodding to herself. Yes, this would do. It was a little lumpier and smelled like spaghetti and insulation, but that was okay, she'd throw it in the washing machine with her clothes when Jean wasn't looking next laundry day. Emerging from the attic into the garage, she was surprised to notice that nearly two hours had passed in bear surgery. Scott's convertible was back from the afternoon trip he and Jean had gone on, and the Professor's Bentley had appeared as well, meaning he was done with his meeting with whoever that had been wherever it was.

The sun was lower in the sky if the shadows were any sign, and Laura frowned. It would be harder to sneak the sewing kit back to Ororo's room now and the bear to the relative safety of under her bed in Jean's room. It worked though- the blank spot on a shelf by the door in Ororo's room fit the small sewing kit exactly, and a telepathic message for dinner had occurred while she was lurking about waiting for Jean to leave their room that led most of the mansion's residents to the large table in the dining hall and left Laura alone in the girls' hall. She rapidly shoved the bear under her bed where the empty nightstand would hide it and quickly changed clothes and tried to get as much of the insulation out of her hair as possible, then headed to dinner as well.

If she sat in silence a little more contentedly that night, or ate a little more, or responded with a few more words when someone felt obligated to try to include her in the conversation, no one noticed anyway. And when a few days later Jean found the bear suspiciously clean and whole in the dryer and told Amara, they decided to pretend they hadn't seen anything and left it in Laura's pile of laundry on her bed, knowing that it's reappearance in the girls' hall wasn't miraculous at all.


	10. Family

Title: (there is no title)  
Fandom: X-Men: Evolution  
Characters: X23, Remy LeBeau  
Prompt: #24, Family  
Word Count: 1135  
Rating: G  
Summary: X23 and Gambit discuss the merits and failures of new lives.  
Author's Notes: Yeah, I don't really have any. Not this time.

Apparently the design of doorknobs has changed enough that peering through the lock into another room doesn't work anymore. Instead, Laura kneeled and listened through the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.

Remy, wandering through the halls of the mansion in search of something amusing (on the logic that in a private school full of teenagers, something interesting is bound to be happening somewhere) paused beside where Laura was lying. He silently watched her for a few moments, absently eating an apple, and then gave up.

"What are you doing?" he asked, and was immediately shushed.

"What are you doing?" he whispered, squatting down beside her. Laura sat back against the wall.

"They're talking, I'm listening," she explained vaguely. Remy digested this.

"Who's talking and why are you listening?"

"What do you care?" Laura narrowed her eyes at Remy, who smiles happily and offered the remainder of his apple as a token of peace.

"I have absolutely nothing better to be doing. I'm bored out of my mind and you're being weird. It's highly amusing," he informed her. Laura glanced at the door, then took the apple of peace."

"Storm and Beast are in there-"

"Y'know, you don't have to use codenames all the time."

"Shut up, and they're talking about the students."

"So?" Remy raided an eyebrow.

"I'm bored too," Laura grumbled, "There's nothing to do around here." She laid down on the floor with her head by the gap again, officially dismissing Remy. Undeterred, he spread out on his stomach and listened as well. Laura tried not to pay attention to him, but the absolute lack of sound he made led her to wonder whether he had any combat in his past. Jean had told her that he had been one of the bad guys until recently.

"What did you do before this?" she asked quietly after a few minutes of silence. Remy blinked quickly. He'd actually been listening to Ororo and Hank.

"I got that apple from the kitchen and killed a fly that was following me around,"

"No, before coming here."

"Mercenary. Worked for whoever p aid. And before that, Thieves' Guild in New Orleans."

Laura thought this over. "Was it better?"

"Than what, this wonderful new life? Knowing I have a safe place to sleep, three meals a day, a TiVo?" Remy shrugged, "Yeah. I feel like I'm losing my edge, cooped up like this, but what else is there? It's go straight now or die young, wondering what the hell happened."

Laura nodded, beginning to understand. There could be someone else who, possibly, understood if not what she had gone through as a child, than what she was going through now trying to adjust to a relatively normal life. It was a nice feeling, sort of like a warm blanket.

"You?" Remy interrupted her thoughts. She looked up from where she'd been studying the floor and saw him watching her calmly, chin resting on folded arms.

She smirked (an expression she'd recently picked up form Logan). "I took a shower and rearranged all the toothbrushes, and later I'm going to use that to frame Tabby."

Remy rolled his eyes. Laura's smirk disappeared.

"I killed people. Usually important or rich people. Remember Johnson, that guy who was running for president a few years ago? It's what I was made to do, but I'm not supposed to anymore."

"Generally people frown upon murder," Remy agreed. Laura was mildly surprised at his lack of reaction, but didn't press it. It wasn't important.

"So now what?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I do now?" she asked, still softly. They'd both stopped eavesdropping on Ororo and Hank long ago.

"What do you want to do?" Remy asked blandly.

"What do I…?" Laura didn't understand.

"You know what wanting something is, right?" Remy asked doubtfully, sitting up.

"Yes, kind of…. I wanted pie yesterday, so I distracted Jubilee and took her piece."

"Okay, what about wanting…hmm. Things normal people want," Remy struggled to come up with things that normal people would probably like, "Friends. Or wanting to care about someone, or wanting a family. Or at least a driver's license."

"I could have a family if I wanted one," Laura said skeptically. "I didn't think it worked like that."

"Most of the time it doesn't," Remy waved a hand as if to shoo that detail away, "But the way I see it you have an ideal situation here- a bunch of people to pick from for your family. Logan could be the grumpy pain in the ass man of the house. Ororo could be the loving but overworked and underappreciated mother. I could be your masculine and charismatic older brother or something." He paused in thought, then chuckled evilly. "Jean could be a fairly useless plot device posing as a responsible, trustworthy older sister. Rahne could be the family pet."

Laura stood up slowly, thinking hard. Remy got up and waited patiently (listing other roles people could play in the imaginary "family".

"This is going to sound really dumb," she began slowly.

"I doubt that anything you say could sound dumb. You're much too intimidating for that."

"Shut up again. But…strictly as my unofficial masculine and charismatic older brother, of course-"

"Of course," Remy agreed, nodding.

"Can you…teach me to make buildings out of playing cards? I tried on my own but they always fall."

"Absolutely. As your unofficial masculine and charismatic older brother, it is my duty to teach my life's skills to my unofficial scary and confused and kind of short younger sister."

"I'm not that short," she grumbled as Remy took her arm and led the way to the big table in the dining room.

"Whatever you say, darling unofficial sister."

Laura growled and wriggled her arm out of Remy's.

"Don't patronize me."

On the other side of the door, Ororo Monroe raised an eyebrow at Hank, who was shaking his head slowly.

"Remy LeBeau overseeing Laura's development…," he spread his arms, "I didn't see that coming."

"I'm sure they'll both benefit from it," Ororo smiled calmly and sipped her tea.

"Quite so, but I am still surprised. Do you think Logan will approve?"

Ororo didn't have to think about it. "Not at all. But I think if anything that will help enhance anything Remy teaches her."

"As long as she doesn't develop an ego like his." Hank laughed quietly to himself.

"What do you mean?" Ororo looked up.

Hank winced, "Masculine and charismatic?"

Ororo paused mid-sip and looked slightly worried. "Good point."


End file.
